


the long way to you is still tied to me

by majesdane



Category: Pretty Little Liars
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-06
Updated: 2012-12-06
Packaged: 2017-11-20 11:04:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/584701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/majesdane/pseuds/majesdane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Paige spots Emily wearing the bracelet Ali gave her, and the one time she doesn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the long way to you is still tied to me

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2012 [PLL Femslash Ficathon](http://ultimatums.livejournal.com/105914.html?thread=623802#t623802).

Who would have thought something so small could be so everlasting?   
\-- Oscar Lush  
  
  
In the locker room at the YMCA, fresh from the shower, the locker room sticky and steamy, they dress side-by-side, lockers open, clothes in neat piles on the thin, wooden bench. They'd run into each other here a few weeks ago; the pool in Paige's backyard still being built. Emily had suggested that they practice together, and Paige, despite herself, hadn't been able to turn down the offer.  
  
Now, she combs her damp hair and pulls it back into a loose ponytail, closing her locker with a soft click. Emily's standing there with her back to Paige, in just her jeans and bra, her tanned skin is still flushed from the shower, her damp hair pulled off to one side. Paige so badly wants to kiss that little space of exposed skin on the back of Emily's neck.  
  
She notices the bracelet right away.  
  
(She notices everything about Emily.)  
  
"That's pretty," she remarks, nodding in its direction. "Is it new?"  
  
"Yeah," Emily says, looking down at it with a small smile. "Alison gave it to me."  
  
Paige swallows hard, forces a smile. "Oh. Cool."  
  
  
+  
  
  
She's not an idiot.  
  
They're all sitting together at the Grille -- Emily and her friends. Alison. She watches Emily watch Alison, smiling at Alison in a way she doesn't smile at anyone else. She smiles and toys absentmindedly with the bracelet on her wrist and there's a look on her face that's so painfully familiar. It's a look that's full of hope and longing and admiration and --  
  
For a second, Emily's eyes dart away, and meet Paige's, across the room.   
  
It's only for a second.  
  
She's never felt more invisible.  
  
  
+  
  
  
It's been more than a year. Three hundred, seventy two days. However many hours, minutes, seconds. And still, Emily hasn't taken it off. The little purple beaded bracelet with her name on it. A reminder of something that used to exist. A reminder of someone who used to be here. She wishes Emily would just take it off. She can't stand to look at it. She doesn't understand why Emily keeps on wearing it when her three other friends stopped months ago.  
  
(That's a lie.)  
  
(She knows exactly why.)  
  
Three seats over in English class, she sees Emily run her fingers over it. The expression on her face makes Paige sick to her stomach; she turns her head away, can't bear to watch.  
  
  
+   
  
  
Emily falls asleep on the bus back from the county meet, her head on Paige's shoulder.   
  
Paige wishes they didn't have to sit together. Even with Alison gone, she goes out of her way to avoid Emily. It's a practiced routine, keeping her distance.   
  
She reaches out hesitantly, strokes her fingers very, very lightly over Emily's upturned wrist, along the thin metal chain of her bracelet. A strange sadness blooms inside her suddenly; she pulls her hand away, feeling the sharp prick of tears in her eyes.   
  
  
+  
  
  
They kiss, outside the roadhouse. When Emily pulls back, just for a moment, and smiles at her, Paige thinks that she may burst. She reaches for Emily, catches her wrist; the bracelet is cool and smooth under her palm, but she doesn't even care right now, because  
  
she  
  
is  
  
kissing  
  
Emily.  
  
And Emily is kissing her back.  
  
  
+  
  
  
One night as they're getting ready to go out on a double-date with Hanna and Caleb (Hanna's idea, though Paige secretly loved it), she says, "Whatever happened to that old bracelet of yours? The one Alison gave you."  
  
"Oh, I took that off a long time ago," Emily says, stepping forward and straightening Paige's tie, tucking it into her vest. She smiles, remembering; she runs her fingers gently down the length of Paige's tie, over the vest buttons, fingers trailing along the bottom v-cut of it. "Remember last year? When we went on that date and you made me sing karaoke? I took it off after that."  
  
"Why?"  
  
Emily shrugs. "Well, because of you, of course," she says, like it's the most obvious thing in the world, and suddenly Paige can't contain herself at all, she's just bursting with happiness. She doesn't even know why. She reaches up catches Emily's hand in her own; she pulls Emily to her and they kiss, laughing. Emily's hair is soft and silky between her fingers and she tastes like peppermint and it's the sweetest thing Paige has ever known.  
  
(And then she realizes --  
  
She won.)


End file.
